Jetsettersblog

InterContinental Hotels Group announced that the Avenue Crowne Plaza Chicago has opened just steps from Michigan Avenue’s “Magnificent Mile.”

A conversion of the Avenue Hotel Chicago, the 40-story hotel completed a multimillion-dollar renovation in summer 2008. This property will be the second IHG full-service hotel along the Magnificent Mile. Situated in the heart of downtown Chicago, the Avenue Crowne Plaza Chicago is located near Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the John Hancock Center, Water Tower Place, Lake Michigan and given its proximity to Michigan Avenue offers guests immediate access to shopping, dining, arts and entertainment.

The Crowne Plaza brand offers a comprehensive meetings program to ensure a seamless planning process and exceptional meeting experience consisting of three key components: a Two-Hour Response Guarantee, Crowne Meetings Director and a Daily Meetings Debrief. The hotel has more than 18,000 square feet of flexible, upscale meeting space featuring natural light from expansive windows overlooking the city.

The Avenue Crowne Plaza Chicago boasts 350 guestrooms each complete with a flat-screen TV, iHome docking station, mini bar, rain showerhead, and granite countertops along with expansive views of Lake Michigan and the downtown skyline.

Guests have access to a variety of amenities including complimentary wi-fi in the guestrooms and public spaces, rooftop pool, fitness center, business center, in-room dining and spa services, which are available upon request.

The 40th floor of the hotel is home to the Sky Lounge and spectacular panoramic views of the city.

Sky Lounge provides guests a relaxed and contemporary setting to enjoy a European-influenced breakfast; the space is also available for private events. For more casual fare, guests can visit the hotel’s first-floor restaurant Elephant & Castle, an English pub-style restaurant serving English specialties throughout the day, complete with 26 ales on tap. The property, located at 160 East Huron, is owned and managed by Driftwood Hospitality Management, LLC, and under a license agreement with a company in the InterContinental Hotels Group.

Guests with visual disabilities can now be more fully immersed into Disney attractions and storytelling through a new Audio Description service created by Disney engineers.

The service is enabled through wireless technology via a handheld device available to guests visiting the Resort. Audio Description provides narrated audio for guests with visual disabilities by describing visual attraction elements such as actions, settings and scene changes, and works seamlessly with existing show audio.

This service is available at nearly 20 attractions at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure Parks. As part of the testing process, Audio Description service was evaluated by members of CastABLE, a Diversity Resource Group (DRG) composed of Resort Cast Members with disabilities.

Right now Vienna’s room inventory features 52,000 beds in 400 accommodations ranging from luxury five-star hotels to simple single-star pensions.

This year will bring a number of new additions.

In October, the Accor group will open a Sofitel (www.sofitel.com)  in a new building in Vienna’s second district. This architecturally interesting glass and steel construction on the Danube Canal comes from French architect and Pritzker Award-winner Jean Nouvel.

The asymmetrical sculptural design of the PS1 tower appears to lean slightly towards its neighbor, Hans Hollein’s Media Tower on the other side of the road. Besides the 360-bed five-star Sofitel, the 19-story building will also be occupied by shops and offices, and a rooftop public restaurant.

In early 2010 the Fleming’s Deluxe Hotel Wien-City (www.flemings-hotels.com)  will open in a former office building used by the state gas company in Josefstadt, Vienna’s well-heeled 8th district.

The planned four-star hotel will offer 207 rooms, two restaurants, a bar, six meeting rooms and a gym area complete with sauna and workout room.

There is also something for budget travelers — a new Wombat’s (www.wombats-hostels.com ) will open in summer 2010 on Naschmarkt. This is the hostel group’s fifth Vienna site, and with 440 beds it will be the largest so far.

For more destination information, visit www.vienna.info

With over 60 courses spanning the six areas making up the region, Provence Côte d’Azur is one of France’s leading golfing destinations.

This activity is actively supported by the region’s tourist industry through a policy designed to assist courses in structuring and promoting high-quality golfing services, and ensure that Provence Côte d’Azur is well positioned on the international golf tourism market.

Provence Côte d’Azur offers visiting golfers a choice of green fee packages, a network of partner hotels and various groups specializing in the development of golf tourism (Open Golf Club, Blue Green, NGF and Formule Golf), websites, package deals available from a selection of travel agents (Parcours Voyages, EfranceGolf), events and golf academies offering instruction.

Signed by such names as Seve Ballesteros, Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones, Gary Player, Don Harradine and Bob van Hagge, the courses are spread throughout the region, from the Italian border to the Rhône and the Mediterranean Sea to the Alps, offering a fabulously varied golfing experience.

Served by four airports including the second largest airport in France Nice Côte d’Azur international airport, and Marseille Provence (now offering a dedicated low cost terminal), plus TGV and Thalys high-speed train services from all over Europe, the Provence Côte d’Azur region allows golfers in Europe a weekend or short break in the South of France.

The region offers such golfing passes as the Golf Pass Pays de Grasse good at four major courses: the Golf du Claux Amic (Grasse), the Golf de la Grande Bastide (Châteauneuf-de-Grasse), the Golf d’Opio-Valbonne (Opio) and the Golf de Saint-Donat (Grasse). Visit www.grasse.fr

The “Pass Golf Mandelieu” comprises two green fees, giving access to two 18-hole courses in Mandelieu-La Napoule: the Old Course (the second oldest golf course in France created in 1891) and the Riviera Golf. Visit www.mandelieu.com

The Golf Pass Provence comprises three or five green fees, valid on 16 different partner golf courses, in five counties in Provence Côte d’Azur region.

For more information, visit www.golfpass-provence.com  or www.discover-southoffrance.com

Sol Meliá closed the year 2009 by adding three new hotels to its portfolio — two in Colombia (the company’s first entry into this market) and one in Portugal.

The Meliá Cartagena, located on the road Vía al Mar, from the tourist city of Cartagena de Indias, will provide 268 rooms and a wide range of services, such as spa, gym, an extensive choice of restaurants, meeting rooms and the exclusive “The Level” lounge. The building will also house a shopping center and a 1,000-square-meter casino.

The Meliá Barranquilla will be located in the seaside town of Barranquilla, in the Caribbean Sea.

The hotel will provide 253 rooms and a large convention center for more than 1,000 people.

In addition, Sol Meliá will manage a new hotel in Braga (Portugal), whose opening is scheduled for June 2010.

Located in the main development district, the luxury Meliá Braga Hotel & Spa will provide 180 rooms as well as the meeting rooms.

The hotel company has added 20 hotels during the year to its portfolio, according to its brand’s development strategy, and will keep on growing within the next two years under management, lease or franchise agreements.

For more information, visit www.solmelia.com

The InterContinental Alpensia Pyeongchang Resort has opened in Alpensia village, South Korea’s newest mountainside resort in the Taebaek mountains, a two and a half hour drive from Seoul.

The 238-room resort offers extensive concierge services and the Club InterContinental Lounge.

The resort is located near such leisure facilities as an Olympic-class ski park, a 27-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and the Ocean 700 water-park.

Other facilities include the Planet Trekkers kids’ club, spa, state-of-the-art conference center and an open-air concert hall. Guests will experience adventure, relaxation, personal and family time amidst stunning alpine surroundings without having to leave the resort.

Alisal Guest Ranch & Resort, a 10,000-acre working cattle ranch located in the Santa Ynez Valley about 40 minutes north of Santa Barbara, offers a meeting and conference package.

The “Meet Me at The Ranch” package includes studio accommodation with wood-burning fireplace; breakfast, lunch and dinner; use of meeting facilities; basic coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon; standard audio-visual equipment; and taxes and service charge.

The package price is $460 per night, single occupancy, and $585 per night, double occupancy, based on a two-night minimum stay. Packages require a minimum of 10 rooms.

For more information, call 800-4-Alisal or visit www.alisal.com

Hopscotch Air, an air limo service, is launching the only direct flights from Long Island to destinations throughout Canada’s eastern provinces.

This fall, Hopscotch Air received Canadian government approval to begin flights.

Hopscotch Air flies to Toronto City Centre Airport.

Hopscotch Air, which flies Cirrus SR22 aircraft, serves clients from Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey to destinations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

For more information, visit www.flyhopscotch.com

The Nevada Commission on Tourism (NCOT) has awarded 68 grants totaling more than $365,000 to help rural communities promote attractions that draw visitors and generate revenue for local economies. “While the tourist attractions in our larger cities are certainly well known, our rural communities have many special treasures awaiting the visitors who travel across our state,” said Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, NCOT chair.

“The Rural Grant Program gives us a unique opportunity to showcase our rural attractions and NCOT is proud to play a part in that.” NCOT awards grants twice a year to public entities such as visitor authorities, cities and chambers of commerce, and each grant must be matched in value with local funds or labor.

Examples of grants include $8,000 for the Fallon Convention and Tourism Authority for its Tractors & Truffles event, an upscale food and arts event; $10,000 for the Virginia City Convention and Visitors Authority to conduct a media familiarization tour jointly with Elko and Ely; $7,000 for the City of Carlin to purchase radio and television advertising in Reno, Idaho and Utah to promote its annual Carlin Car Show; $5,000 for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California to promote its Wa She Shu It Deh Festival; and $6,000 for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe to redesign and maintain the Pyramid Lake website.

“Grant recipients must match the funds either monetarily or in kind, and that guarantees an excellent commitment by the recipients to make the most of the money they receive,” NCOT Director Dann Lewis said.

“We have a very dedicated network of tourism partners throughout the state, and they often donate their own time and money to improve the visitors’ experiences in their communities.

The Rural Grants Program helps alleviate some of the burden, and in many cases, enables essential events and programs to continue.”

For more information, visit

www.TravelNevada.biz

Giant Pacific Octopus is latest addition to varied species at Underwater Zoo

Dubai, UAE:

One of the marine world’s most intelligent animals, the Giant Pacific Octopus, is the latest addition to the diversity of aquatic animals at Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo in The Dubai Mall.

With highly evolved intellectual faculties, including the ability to overcome complex mazes, the Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) adds to the 135 species already exhibited at Underwater Zoo, one of the most vivid displays of aquatic animals in Dubai.

Mr Damian Prendergast, General Manager, Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, said: “We are routinely adding new and interesting species to further strengthen the educational quotient of Underwater Zoo. These new species add to the wealth of knowledge visitors can gain, especially for students.”

He added: “The Giant Pacific Octopus is indeed a very unique species with several interesting features that will amaze visitors. They have three hearts and can taste food with their tentacles, meaning they don’t have to bring food to their mouth to know if it is a good meal.”

The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest octopus species in the world, found in the northern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean.

The Giant Pacific Octopus has long arms covered in suckers to catch prey and a sharp chitinous beak to break through even the toughest of crab shells. Their boneless body enables them to hide in very tight crevices and sneak up on their prey.

A master of disguise, they change the texture of their skin from smooth to very rough and can change colour using specialized skin cells.

They can also eject a plume of ink to confuse predators.

The Giant Pacific Octopus can reach as much as 16 feet across from tentacle tip to tip and can weigh as much as 45 kg.

Located on Level 2, Underwater Zoo takes visitors through various aquatic environments.

The journey consists of three ecological zones:

Rainforest, Rocky Shore, and Living Ocean, where a variety of aquatic animals are featured including Humbolt Penguins, Harbour Seals, Crocodiles, Piranhas, Spider Crabs, Water Rats, Giant Catfish, Lizards, Tiger Fish and Dart Frogs.

It is a perfect complement to Dubai Aquarium featuring over 33,000 aquatic animals including Sand Tiger sharks, Rays and Eels.

The aquarium features the world’s largest acrylic viewing panel and also offers visitors the opportunity for Shark Dives and Glass Bottom Rides.